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Garifuna Clothing and Food October 27
Garinagu can boast of a precious wardrobe of clothes: ten different wears to suit different occasions. First is the Arabutu, which is the gown used by women as common working clothes. The men on the other hand, would wear a khaki shirt, long or short sleeve and long pants. However, today men wear jeans pants and other common fabric materials for shirts. Then there’s the Baramuda or daily wear usually worn at home after the day’s hard work. The Douguo is used for normal dressing. This can either be a skirt and a blouse or a regular one- piece dress, floral or plain. Men’s formals wear is black or dark colored pants and a white shirt, Guayabera or dashiki style. At pregnancy, the women wear a loose fitting gown, sometimes a skirt and blouse nicely sewn with pleats on the skirt or on both garments. For weddings, the woman wears a white dress with her bridesmaid holding the end or tail of her long dress. On the other hand, the man wears dark-colored pants and a white long sleeve shirt, a necktie and black shoes. After the death of a loved one, the men and women are expected to mourn for an entire year depending on how close their relationship with the deceased was. For mourning purposes, women and men wear what is referred to as Second Mourning; full black and white. More distant relatives wear polka dots or some floral material. There is also the head tie and the head and neck wrap known as Gafamelu, which is worn during the colder weather by both children and adults. There’s also the manda or shawl, worn by elderly women while at church or for similar occasions. Lastly, at the Dugu Ritual, the deceased ancestor, Gubida, will reveal in dreams to children or grandchildren, the color and style of clothing to be worn throughout the ceremony. Usually both men and women use Manta Cantel Dacron or cotton- checkered big or small of various colors. Afunahoutinya are the special chosen ones to be dressed in red and stay in the ancestor’s immediate vicinity in the Temple. These have to abide by the rules given by the Buyae (spirit helper) leader in the Dugu ceremony, Garifuna foods
To the Garifuna, there is no food as tasty, as healthy and as filling as ereba or cassava bread. “ Just give me my ereba. Forget the rice. I no eat it!All I need is my ereba and a lee fish!” Common remarks as these reflect more than single taste preference. For to the Garifuna, as to many other people, traditional foods embody memories, emotions and values associated with ethnic identity. For centuries, the heart of the Garifuna diet has been ereba and either fish or shellfish. Since their arrival in Central America, the Garifuna diet has expanded and processed foods bought at shops have also formed an essential part of their daily diet. Garifuna foods from the land In Belize, Garifuna communities are mainly established for their accessibility to the sea, and land around villages is generally sandy beach or swamp. These soils are suitable only for some medicinal herbs, coconut palms or fruit tress such as coco plums and baibaior sea grapes, which are enjoyed as snacks by both children and adults. The main farms are located in the bush to the west on pine ridge and forest soils. The southern village of Barranco is fortunate in having seacoast and forest soils in close proximity. As a result, it has and continues to produce up to a third of its own food supply. Recipes:
Garifuna Beverages: Unie
A) Ginger wine: use ginger, baker’s yeast and sugar. Procedure:
For four quarts of wine, grate ginger, add sugar, water and a tablespoon of baker’s yeast. Let it ferment; check on the sugar content; add more if fermentation is quick; then strain and bottle. Drink cold. The same process may be used for cashew, molly apple, plum and other fruits as well as coconut water. B) Cassava wine:
To make this excellent beverage, the following ingredients are necessary: coarse sibiba, baked until brown and saved (hiu) salt, sweet potato and ginger. Procedure:
Add a little water to hiu and pound in mortar. Place it in a large container with water and cover it. Add grated sweet potato, grated ginger and a touch of salt. Let it ferment for several days, strain then add sugar to taste. Add ice cubes and drink cold! Garifuna porridges:
The flowing information is to provide our reader with Garifuna Porridges recipes and procedures of making these porridges. C) Ripe Banana Porridges- Letu:
Ripe banana (8-10), coconut milk, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. Procedure:Peel and boil the ripe bananas until swollen and fluffy. Mash with spoon, then pour coconut milk into mashed bananas and stir. Add nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and ginger to taste.
D) Ripe Plantain Porridge- Gurentu: Use 5 ripe plantains, 3 cups of coconut milk, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. Procedure:
Peel and boil the plantain until soft; beat it in a mortar or pudding pan while hot. Pour coconut milk into mashed plantain and stir. Then add the usual ingredients: a pinch of salt, grated nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon and serve! E) Sweet Cassava Pudding- Dani: Grated sweet cassava, sugar, coconut milk, banana or waha leaves, spices and lard or shortening. Mix grated sweet cassava with coconut milk and a little lard if desired. Add sugar, nutmeg and vanilla to taste. Place on clean, blanched leaves, wrap up and boil until done. F) Green Banana Porridge- Gungude:
Green bananas, coconut milk, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla and condensed milk. Procedure:Since 5 to 8 bananas and place in the sun to dry for three or four days. When crisp, pound into powder. Use water to make a little paste and add coconut milk and sugar. Let it boil, then add nutmeg, vanilla and stir as you sweeten it.
As you may have noticed by now, bananas and plantains, ripe and green, potatoes and cassava bread have served as excellent bases for Garifuna porridges. Garifuna dishes
A) Matilda Foot- Bundiga:
The following ingredients are used in the making of Bundiga or Matilda Foot, the Garifuna style; green plantains, or green banana, fish, coconut milk, onion, salt, black pepper, jabanero pepper and bay leaf. Procedure:Peel, wash and grate bananas or plantains. Boil coconut milk; add salt and black pepper, slice onions and bay leaf. When lasus (gravy) is boiling drop spoonfuls of grated plantain. When they are holding shape, stir and add pieces of fish. Cook and stir until lasus is thick and the fish is done.
B) Banana Boil up- Tapau: Use green bananas or green plantains, fish, coconut milk, onions, salt, jabanero or black pepper and oregano. Procedure:Season cut pieces of fish with salt and pepper. Fry until half done. Place whole green bananas in the pot of coconut milk and leave to boil. Add onions and other seasonings. When the bananas are half done add fish. Stew together until the lasus (gravy) is thick as desired then serve.
C) Brown Flour Soup- Tikini: Ingredients: fish, salted or fresh, pigtails, or ribs or snout, wheat flour, onion, salt, black pepper, lard recardo, and bay leaf. Procedure:Melt a few tablespoons of lard, add flour to make a brown paste, then add water and stir. Add salt, black pepper to taste. Mix recardo and bay leaf. When boiling, add pieces of fish. These may be half fried at first. Stir until thick as desired and serve with rice or ereba (cassava bread).
D) Sere Lasas- Falumo: Ingredients: fish salted or fresh, coconut milk, salt, black pepper, jabanero pepper, onions and bay leaf. Procedure:Boil coconut milk with alt, black pepper, jabanero pepper, onion and bay leaf. When boiling, add fish pieces and stir until the fish is done and the lasus is thick. Serve with ereba, hudut or marumati.
Source: Cayetano, S & Cayetano,I: Luba Garifuna Cultural Museum, Footprints of the Garifuna, Information Booklet pp.11-14 |
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